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Gulliver's Travels

"Satire is a sort of glass wherein beholders do generally discover everybody's face but their own." 
Jonathan Swift

 

Gulliver's Travels is available online for free.  Click here.

Gulliver’s Travels Study Guide
for the 1996 film

Book 1

The story of Dr. Lemuel Gulliver begins……

 1.       What is satire?

2.       What does Swift’s story satirize?

3.       What is the woman in white being pressured to do at the beginning of the film?

4.       What is in the small bag the lady in white is given?

5.       What causes the lady (Mary Gulliver)  to investigate the barn?

6.       What does the strange man (Dr. Lemuel Gulliver) in the barn say when we first meet him?

 The flashbacks begin…get ready for the story to switch between settings….
Adventure 1

7.       The man seems to have a flashback to which place?

8.       What do the 2 beach combers find one day?

9.       What do the small people, the Lilliputans do to the giant Lemuel Gulliver?

10.   The Lilliputan soldiers first believe that Gulliver is a what?

11.   How long has Gulliver been gone from home?

12.   Who do the soldiers think has sent the giant?

13.   How do the Lilliputans transport Gulliver?

14.   Evaluate the emperor as a ruler.  Whose advice does he rely on?

 15.   Why are Bigenders the enemies of the Lilliputans?  What is the origin of their feud?

 16.   For what purposes do the Lilliputans learn “leaping and creeping”?

17.   Compare the Lilliputans’ form of government to Englands ’.  Is it better or worse?  How? 

18.   Who now owns Lemuel and Mary’s fine house?  Why?

19.   Where does Dr. Bates want to take Gulliver?

20.   How does Gulliver prove to be a hero to the Lilliputans?

21.   After Gulliver embarrasses the empress (by extinguishing the fire), how does the king consider punishing him?

22.   How does Gulliver hide from the Lilliputan army while trying to escape?

23.   How does Gulliver make a raft?

24.   Where does Dr. Bates take Gulliver?  How does he convince him to go?

Adventure 2

25.   What is unusual about the land of the Brobdingnags?

26.   Who finds Gulliver?

27.   How does the family try to make money off of Gulliver?

28.   Who purchases Gulliver, and how much does he sell for?

29.   Who accompanies Gulliver after he is sold?

30.   What position does the queen give to Gulliver?

31.   How is he transported while he is at the palace?

32.   What do you notice about the ruler of the Brobdingnags?

33.    How do the Brobdingnags govern themselves?

34.   Is this method of government better or worse than England ’s, or not comparable?

35.   What do you notice about the place of science and education in the land of the Brobdingnags?

36. Why is the queen’s dwarf mean to Gulliver?

37.   Where does Gulliver live while at the palace?

38.   How old is Glumdalclitch, and how would you describe her relationship with Gulliver?

39.   Why does Gulliver introduce gunpowder to the Brobdingnags, and how is this demonstration received?

40.   What does Tom find in his father’s knapsack back home?

41.   How does Gulliver defend himself against the wasps?

42.   What happens to Gulliver one day while he is at the beach with Glum?

43.   When the bird drops Gulliver, where do he and the box land?

 Adventure 3

44.   What is unusual about Laputa?

45.   How does Gulliver get transported to Laputa?

46.   How big is the floating island?  How many people live on it?

47.   What nationality do these people remind you of?  Why might Swift include these people in a book?

48.   What seems to characterize the people of Laputa?

49.   Who is Prince Munodi?

50.   What does Dr. Bates do with Mary’s letter?

51.   What is a “flapper”?  What is its use?

52.   What is the Rajah predicting will happen?

53.   How is the island controlled (in scientific terms)?

54.   What is the problem with the way the island navigates?

55.   What is Tom Gulliver drawing?

56.   Why does Gulliver want to “reverse the lodestone”?

57.   Where does Gulliver fall?

58.   How does Munodi’s mother view intellectualism?

59.   Why does Gulliver want to find the “Academy”?  What type of place is it?

60.   What might the “Academy” represent in real-life societies?

At this point, Gulliver travels around the land of Luggnagg .  These places represent societies intrigued with the Period of Enlightenment: Love of intellectual and scientific attitudes and practices.

 61.   Why is the old man mashing cucumbers?

62.   Who does Gulliver meet in the Room of Answers?  Why is this appropriate?

63.   Back in England , where is Gulliver placed?

64.   Gulliver ends up being a prisoner at the palace of the Glubbubdribs.  It’s like a scene out of the movie Groundhog Day.  Why?

65.   When Gulliver is drugged and sleeping at night, what does the king do to him?

66.   Who does Gulliver end up summoning through a mirror?  Why?

67.   In the land of the Struldbrugs, a lady speaks to Gulliver from a golden eye.  What is unusual about the Struldbrugs?

68.   What is wrong with the people near the waters of immortality?

69.   Back in England , how is Dr. Bates caught in a lie?

70.   Does Gulliver drink from the waters of immortality?  Why or why not?

71.   While Mary is trying to get Gulliver off his addiction to laudanum, what ship experience does he tell her about?

72.   How does he leave the ship?

Adventure 4: The Houyhnhms (pronounced “ how WIN ems”) and the Yahoos

73.   Gulliver, back in England , is taken to a court hearing.  What does he call the people there?

74.   Describe the real Yahoos.  What do you think they represent?

75.   Describe the Houyhnhms.  What do you think they represent?

76.   In the world of Adventure 4, the Houyhnhms act like __________________ and the Yahoos act like ______________________.

77.   Who is “Mistress”?

78.   What do the Yahoos dig on the beaches for?

79.   What does Gulliver find by digging on the beaches?  What does he do with his findings?

80.   What does the Houyhnhm Council decide about Gulliver?

81.   How does he plan to leave the Houyhnhms?

82.   Why does Gulliver throw his food overboard?

83.   Who rescues him?

84.   How does Mary answer when Dr. Bates asks her if Mary believes Gulliver’s stories?

85.   Why does Tom appear at the court hearing?

86.    What does Tom’s evidence prove?

87.   Lem, Mary, and Tom return home.  How does life continue for the Gullivers?

88.   Why does Lem like to visit the stables at his home?

89.   Does he find peace?  What can Gulliver still not tolerate by  the end of the story?

  Gulliver's portrait as it appeared in the book's first edition.  http://www.jaffebros.com/lee/gulliver/index.html

Maps of places Gulliver traveled to.  Click here.

Glossary of terms you'll meet for the first time in Gulliver's Travels here

Timeline of Swift's life and times here